


Now It's My Turn To Be Your Escort

by perid0ttie



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, post-Malachite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 13:15:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6856171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perid0ttie/pseuds/perid0ttie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jasper washes up one day and Peridot is there to protect her. Jaspidot. Post-Malachite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now It's My Turn To Be Your Escort

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a little ficlet that I tackled to try and get myself back into writing! I thought I'd start small and angsty, and after SWI, I have a lot to work with! (I'll use they/them pronouns for Jasper in all of my fics, jsyk!) I hope you enjoy!

Peridot had heard the telltale sounds of a fusion forming just outside of the beach house. She rushed to the screen door and peered out, squinting into the late afternoon sun glaring off of the ocean waves. She could barely make out the form of Steven’s hair, obscured by the railings and rock cliff. But she could clearly see the form of Opal, the long legged fusion whom she had only seen once or twice...

Opal, Steven, and Garnet were all staring at something half submerged in the water. Steven’s arms waved wildly as a glowing arrow flew through the air and pierced the shoulder of whatever was in the water. Their head flew back and revealed a face-

With a gasp, Peridot flung open the door and sprinted down the stairs, nearly missing the final step and stumbling on the sand. “Wait!” she shouted, charging down the hill to the water’s edge as fast as her short legs could carry her. The other gems shouted things she didn’t bother to process as suddenly Steven was running beside her. At the close distance, she could hear the gem collapsed in the water groan in pain. Opal’s arrow stuck out from their shoulder, having ripped the shoulder of their all too familiar uniform.

“ _ Jasper _ ...”

“Jasper!” Garnet’s voice boomed from behind. Peridot heard rapid feet stomping on the sand, but she had already reached the water with Steven, and quickly waded in up to her knees. Close enough to touch. The green gem shot a glance over her shoulder, finding that Steven had already taken up defense, with his bright pink shield, facing his family of gems. He had her back.

Peridot sunk to her knees in the water, submerging herself to her chest, and brushed the thick mop of hair from the other gem’s face. Upon seeing the damage, she flinched back with a frightened gasp and squeak. “Jasper, what happened...?” she asked, more to calm herself than actually get answers from the Quartz. “You’re a mess.”

Once again, she lifted the mass of soaked hair covering the gem’s front, brushing it back over her non-injured shoulder. A clear crack sliced Jasper’s faceted gem diagonally. It made Peridot’s artificial stomach twist just looking at it.

And then came the broken, glitched response.

“Yeah, I  _ know, _ ” followed by a pained growl. Peridot placed both of her hands on Jasper’s shoulders, careful to avoid the arrow.

“Don’t talk,” the technician mumbled, balancing herself on her knees against the steady rolling of the ocean's waves. “Just relax.” Just that seemed to cause the tension in the other gem’s muscles to melt away; they slumped where they were crouched, letting out a heavy, audible sigh. Their faded golden eyes, that Peridot remembered illuminating the darkness of her ship’s hallways, went out of focus, then rolled up into her head. Peridot was unable to catch the Quartz gem as they suddenly fell forwards, but she made an effort to keep herself and her escort above water.

There was shouting, crying, and arguing the entire time Steven assisted Peridot in dragging Jasper’s limp body back to the beach house. Opal had unfused, but while Pearl and Garnet trailed close behind, each of them taking their turn to argue with Steven, Amethyst stayed quiet. It was all a blur to Peridot.

The next thing she knew, Jasper was sprawled out on Steven’s bed. The boy knelt beside her, examining the many lingering wounds that were not able to heal. Peridot sat on the floor at the foot of the bed, resting her elbows on the mattress and watching with wide eyes. Quartzs were bred to be sturdy, but that came with risks; their bodies could be pushed to the most extreme limits, but they would reach a point where they would not be able to heal themselves of bodily injuries... What worried Peridot was the  _ crack _ .

Jasper should’ve theoretically poofed out of their physical form, given themself a break to get their energy back. Yet there they were, having washed up on the crystal gem’s sacred beach. It could’ve been any other beach, it  _ should’ve  _ been another beach. What were the chances that they would end up  _ here  _ of all places? By Peridot’s calculations, extremely slim.

Yet there they were. Steven had rolled them onto their side, after using his funny spit powers to mend the arrow wound. He worked on a couple other wounds as well, some thick scratches that were swollen around the edges, some deep colored bruises, and a particularly nasty slash across their stomach that had ripped through their uniform. It looked fresh. Peridot wanted to yell at Steven, to tell him to stop focusing on the little things and  _ heal Jasper’s gem already _ , but she held herself back. Instead, she stood, wandering to the side of the bed that Jasper faced.

She crouched down again, reaching out to brush the tip of a finger against the crack. Even in their unconscious state, Jasper flinched and hissed through their teeth. Peridot murmured an apologetic “sorry...” before leaning in closer.

‘ _ No chipping... looks like an impact crack. It must’ve developed over time.’  _ The green gem flickered her eyes to the rest of Jasper’s body. Their stripes had shifted slightly. The stripes that had once been smoothly painted on their skin were now jagged, less clean, and showed Jasper’s orange skin through cracks in the scarlet red color. Their face, especially. Upon closer inspection, even if it made Peridot’s whole body shake, as if she were able to throw up, Jasper’s face was deeply scarred. Not like the many scars that marked their body, those could heal. The scars etched on the Quartz’s face were a part of them now. Dark and bold and criss-crossing over their left eye and right cheek. Another one stretched all the way from their upper lip to their jaw.

When Peridot snapped out of her trance of staring deeply at Jasper’s face, she realized she was alone. Shadows were beginning to crawl across the floor, towards Jasper’s body, and an overwhelming, instinctual feeling suddenly swelled up in Peridot’s chest. She growled, hackles raised as she crept on all fours around the bed. As if perfectly timed, the door to the house opened and in stepped the Crystal Gems and Steven.

The green gem’s poofy hair stood up on end, as did the line of fur that traveled all the way down her spine, and she let out a sharp hiss, her entire body just barely covered by the shadows of the room. The others were immediately on the offense. Garnet raised her fists, and Pearl’s hand lingered dangerously close to her gem.

“You guys, we talked about this!” Steven exclaimed, jumping in front of his family and the stairs leading up to his lofted bedroom. “Just leave them be!”

Pearl and Garnet shared a worried glance, but Peridot had learned that they rarely went against Steven’s requests. He had some sort of power over them, something that was strong enough to stop just about any aggressive force...

The other gems dissipated, until it was just Steven. Peridot stayed on high alert, narrowing her eyes at him. “How do I know they won’t come back during the night?”

“Don’t worry,” the hybrid boy assured, climbing the stairs and gently removing one of the two pillows that sat at the head of his bed. He left the one that was supporting Jasper’s heavy head. “We can take turns and keep watch tonight, if it’ll make you feel better.”

Peridot’s skin relaxed, and so did her spiky hair, back to its normal softness. She plopped down on her haunches, palms down on the cool wooden floor. “I’d like that, Steven,” she answered honestly, eyes flickering back to the massive gem that lay motionless on the bed. “But where will you sleep?”

“Oh, no problem! I can just sleep on the couch!” With a heartfelt giggle, Steven hopped from the lofted level right onto the couch, bouncing and immediately grabbing the blanket to curl up. “I can take the first watch, Peri. You should get some rest!”

After a small “okay”, Peridot slipped onto the bed beside Jasper. Carefully, with gentle, small fingers, the technician rolled the soldier onto their back, letting their hair pool around their face. The pearly white hair Peridot remembered from so long ago was now dusty, discolored, and ratty. Jasper’s dark eyebrows furrowed together even in their current state, and their full lips were parted to allow a shallow, slow stream of air in and out. It must have felt nice to get some of Earth’s rather addicting source of oxygen into their body.

Peridot settled down on her stomach, cradling the Quartz’s arm against her chest and resting her head on the pillow, right beside the gem’s pointed ear. The tiny puffs of air coming from the technician’s mouth made it twitch, like a cat’s. She let out a sigh.

“You’ve had a rough time, huh...?” Peridot asked, knowing she wouldn't receive an answer. But she continued anyway. “First you blew up with my ship, then that whole  _ Malachite  _ thing, and then... stars knows where you have been until now.” Her tiny fingers reach up to stroke a rough piece of Jasper’s hair. It was dry, unlike how Quartz’s hair was supposed to be like. Peridot was almost afraid it would crumble away as she rubbed it between her thumb and forefinger. She was afraid all of Jasper would crumble away. They seemed to fragile and weak...

“A lot has happened with me, too. I... abandoned that ship, and I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I was afraid, and I didn’t know what they were going to do with me if they caught me. I was only thinking for myself then...” The former captain lifted her head to gaze at her escort’s face. Their eyebrows had softened up just a bit, and Peridot managed a small smile. “And then I wandered this miserable hunk of rock for a while. Until they started to track me down. Then they caught me, bubbled me, then I narrowly escaped, but they caught me again.” She crinkled her nose up, fingers finding their ways to the grooved scars along Jasper’s cheek.

“Anyway... I realized that there were more important things than...  _ me  _ and my own safety. I was so worried that I was going to be stuck here when the cluster emerged, but then Steven made me see that an entire world of living things would be dead, too. So I helped them. And they helped me.”

She went silent for a while, letting the darkness swallow both of them whole in its cool embrace. Steven snored softly from below the loft. Jasper did as well. They weren't before, and Peridot took that as a good sign. Maybe they were sleeping now, instead of just being conked out. So she continued talking.

“I’m a complete traitor, Jasper,” Peridot grumbled with a chuckle. “Can you believe that? A Peridot, doing what  _ I  _ did! ...I’ll tell you about that when you’re awake, that’s a good story to hear. You’ll probably fall over laughing. But... now here I am, calling myself a Crystal Gem. One minute I didn’t even know who they were, the next, I'm one of them! I even have the star, Jasper. No more diamond for me!” She realized in her excitement that her voice was growing louder, and she quickly lowered it again to say “no more Homeworld for me, either.”

Silence blanketed them once again. It wasn’t just her; Jasper was dispensable, too. Yellow Diamond had practically said so herself. Neither of them could go home at this point. Her because of... well, her _confrontation_ with the great Diamond herself , and Jasper because they had failed orders so drastically. Their mission had failed in the worst possible ways. There was no Homeworld left for Jasper, or Peridot...

“ _ Except for you... _ ” Peridot found herself mumbling sleepily, burying her face against her escort’s shoulder. Jasper seemed to have lost some of that signature Quartz fat that lined their entire body. They were a little less soft, more malnourished, but still comfortable to rest against. ‘ _ You can be my tiny slice of Homeworld’. _

Jasper’s snoring was getting increasingly louder now, and Peridot started to worry that the deep rumbles would someone affect the crack in her escort’s gem. But they seemed to be nothing but peaceful. So she let the worrisome thought slip away, replacing it with Jasper’s scent. They smelled... different. Not so strongly like they used to. More like salt and dirt, but given their past situation, that wasn’t too surprising. 

Peridot’s fingers slipped away from Jasper’s face, and instead traveled to rest on the Quartz’s stomach. She let it rise and fall with every even breath that Jasper took, counting them until she reached one hundred. After one hundred and one, she lifted her head and wiggled even closer to Jasper’s ear. “Don’t worry,” she breathed softly, “I won’t let them touch you. I won’t let them hurt you. I’ll protect you from them until you’re fully healed and I can talk some logic into their thick heads. You’re valuable, Jasper. To them, and...” 

‘... _ to me.’  _

“There may be no going back to Homeworld, but there’s always Earth. I promise, it’s not all that bad. I’ll have to show you all of the good things about this place. I’m sure you’ll like it...” Her voice tapered off, as her fingers wrapped around Jasper’s hand and squeezed tight. She felt the Quartz twitch in response. She felt her own heavy eyelids flutter shut as sleep pleasantly clouded her mind.

“I won’t ever let you go. Your job is finished. Now it’s my turn to be your escort.”


End file.
